This is the story of the village of Foxton, in Cambridgeshire. The author studied archaeological excavations, oral tradition, manor court rolls, land tax returns, wills, bishops' registers and many other records, in order to build up a picture of the life, work, clothes, food and pastimes of the villagers, from the first traces of human settlement two thousand years ago, to the present day.

This is the story of a village in East Anglia, astride its common stream, a saga of continuity and change which stretches back across a landscape of two thousand years. It took Rowland Parker thirteen years of detective work to piece this jigsaw together, combing his way through records of archaeological excavations and manor court rolls, and collecting stories at the pub alongside his scholarly inspection of old wills and land tax returns. The intense focus he brought to his work was amplified by his desire to tell the story of the common man, his feuds and fun, his farms, fights, fornications and families.